Manly playmaker Kieran Foran insists he is not the next Andrew Johns but is hoping his off-season under the tutelage of the rugby league immortal will revitalise his game this year.
The Kiwi international openly admits he fell short of his own lofty standards in 2012 due to injuries and closer attention from opposition defences.
Johns joined the Sea Eagles as an assistant coach in November and has spent the summer fine-tuning the games of Foran and half-back Daly Cherry-Evans.
"Yeah he has helped, he's been great," Foran said of Johns.
"He's been really good confidence-wise for myself and Cherry, just picking up little things with him and doing little sessions here and there has really improved the weaknesses in our games.
"We're hoping that we can carry what we've been doing out here on the training paddock out onto the field on Friday night (against Brisbane)."
Asked the inevitable 'Does that mean you'll play more like Andrew Johns this season?' question, Foran replied: "No, we're not Andrew Johns. Myself and Cherry have our own styles and we're a bit different to how he played.
"We just want to take as much as we can from how he did things and the way he did things and his knowledge of the game and put it into our styles of games, and if we can do that then we'll be pretty happy."
Foran, 22, delivered a blunt assessment of his own game last season and is on a mission to get back to his best in what will be his fifth NRL season.
"Last year wasn't a great year for myself, I was in and out of games due to injury and just never really built any momentum and combinations there," Foran said.
"The more years you play sides start to work out your style of footy and they adapt to it and then they start to put more pressure on you and that probably happened to me at stages last year I'd say.
"I wasn't too happy with the way things went last year but it's a fresh start this year and hopefully looking to improve on my games last year and play consistent footy week to week."
Meanwhile, Foran admits Manly's 40-12 preliminary final thumping at the hands of Melbourne still stings but dismissed predictions the Sea Eagles' premiership window is now closed.
"We were pretty disappointed with the way things ended last year but that is last year and you've got to start over again," Foran said.
"We don't necessarily have a point to prove, it's just about proving to ourselves that we (can) be one of the top sides in the competition this year."